Wolstan Dixie (born 1576)

Sir Wolstan Dixie of Appleby Magna and then Market Bosworth (1576 – 25 July 1650) was an English landowner and MP, who was responsible for the refounding of the Dixie Grammar School in Market Bosworth.[1]

He was born the son of John Dixie, a yeoman farmer of Catworth, Huntingdonshire.[2] He was admitted to Gray's Inn in October 1595.[3] In 1594 he inherited an estate at Market Bosworth from his great-uncle the first Sir Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor of London.[2] In 1601 he refounded the medieval grammar school at Market Bosworth, in accordance with his great-uncle's will.[4]

He was knighted by James I of England in 1604 as Sir Wolstan Dixie of Appleby Magna, his newly acquired manor.[5][6] In 1608 he moved to Market Bosworth and commenced work on the original manor house and a grammar school. In 1630 he was listed as the only freeholder in Market Bosworth.[7]

He became a Justice of the Peace in Leicestershire in 1604 and was active in the administration of the county.[2] In 1614 he was appointed High Sheriff of Leicestershire and in 1625 the county's representative in Parliament.[2]

Although he was too old to actively participate in the English Civil War, he supported the king financially and was rewarded with the promise of a baronetcy, which his son received at the Restoration.[2] He died in 1650.[2]

He married Frances, the daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont of Stoughton Grange, Leicestershire in 1598. [2] In 1619 he had 4 sons and 4 daughters living.[8]

References

  1. ^ Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society, Vol 2 London and Middlesex Archaeological Society
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "DIXIE, Sir Wolstan (c.1576-1650), of Market Bosworth, Leics". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  3. ^ The register of admissions to Gray's inn, 1521-1889. 1889. p. 88.
  4. ^ "Memoir of Sir Wolstan Dixie, Knight". Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society. 2: 33.
  5. ^ The Knights of England. Vol. 2. 1906. p. 132.
  6. ^ Nichols, John (1811). The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester. Vol. 4 pt.2. p. 430.
  7. ^ Nichols 1811, p. 497.
  8. ^ a b The visitation of the county of Leicester in the year 1619. Vol. 2. Harleian Society. 1870. p. 116.
  9. ^ a b c d e Nichols 1811, p. 506.
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